Authors

Alternative Title

Document Type

Book chapter

Source Publication

我為人人 : 中聯的時代印記 = One for all : the union film spirit

Publication Date

1-1-2011

Article Number

2222

First Page

124

Last Page

133

Publisher

香港電影資料館

Abstract

本文嘗試以《天長地久》(1955)為例，討論中聯電影鮮為人知的一面。電影人物的悲劇不是直接由社會或家庭造成，而是源於人物個人解不開的矛盾─個人的懦弱。《天長地久》改寫了中聯的形象，讓這個看來有點「老套」的電影公司，添上現代感，進一步改變我們對五十年代香港粵語電影的看法。 本文在討論中連電影為焦點以外，亦旁及五十年代香港電影與跨文化改編(transcultural adaptation)的關係。《天長地久》改編自美國小說家德萊瑟(1871-1945)的著名小說《嘉麗妹妹》(Sister Carrie)。當時的中聯及其他香港電影公司曾經改編過不少世界文學作品，這些外國故事為中聯電影帶來不一樣的角度，挑戰五十年代慣常的道德價值觀。本文嘗試以中聯為焦點，以《天長地久》為例子，討論跨文化改編為五十年代香港電影帶來的不一樣的身份。 Here, we take Eternal Love (1955) as an example in order to look at some lesser-known aspects of Union film. In this film, the tragedy encountered by the characters is not directly caused by society or family, but the result of an inextricable tangle of contradictions – personal weakness. Not only has this film changed the ‘old-fashioned’ image of Union Film by injecting a sense of modernity, but also the views we generally have on 1950s Hong Kong Cantonese cinema. Apart from focusing on the output of this particular studio, the relationship between 1950s Hong Kong cinema and transcultural adaptation will also be touched upon in this article. Eternal Love was adapted from the famous novel Sister Carrie by the American writer Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945). During the 1950s, many other film companies in Hong Kong in addition to Union Film adapted literary works from all over the world. These foreign stories not only brought different viewpoints to the film adaptations, but also challenged the standard moral values of the time. This article therefore attempts to deal with the unusual identity of Hong Kong films that resulted from transcultural adaptations at that particular time, using Eternal Love as an example.